


All My Friends

by SoraMystic



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Because honestly, Gen, I was in the mood for this and figured why the hell not, Major Character Undeath, Molly returns alive and it's a tense fucking week my dudes, a.k.a. my denial runs deep and shows no sign of stopping, kinda Yasha-centric bc duh they were besties, listen, major fucking spoilers for everything that happened after episode 25, someone had to do it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 16:51:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17227748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraMystic/pseuds/SoraMystic
Summary: After the whole shenaniganery with Uk'otoa is taken care of, the Mighty Nein return to Nicodranas just in time to receive a letter from Kara, asking them to join her in Port Damali asap.Or; maybe she would have been less mysterious if SOMEONE hadn't made a habit of stealing mail.





	All My Friends

**Author's Note:**

> What's up, second fic, let's go-
> 
> Basically I found a cool animatic which got me craving for some Molly returns-feels and I wanted to try my hand at excuting this concept. 
> 
> Enjoy~

It’s been a few days after the Mighty Nein have returned to Nicodranas when somewhere late afternoon a letter arrives, addressed to all of them.

Jester, who plucked it from the mailman’s hands before Beau could, unfurls it and reads out loud;

_“Mighty Nein,_

_I hope this letter finds you safe and sound. As you read this, I have probably arrived in Port Damali and request for you to join me at your nearest convenience. I wish I could give you more information, but the postal system is unreliable and this is all I can say for the moment._

_Please contact me once you have received this letter. I await your reply eagerly,_

_Kara”_

A silence follows as looks are exchanged. Beau folds her arms behind her head. “That’s kinda suspicious. Did anyone else find that suspicious?”, she asks and Caleb nods.

“Who was Kara again?”, Nott asks.

“She’s with the Gentleman”, Fjord says, taking the letter from Jester and giving it a once over. “We met her a few times in Zadash. Wonder what she wants from us. Think the Gentleman sent her?”

“If that were the case she probably would have mentioned. Then again…”, Caleb trails off.

Another silence.

“Should I send a Message?”, Nott asks, already rummaging around for the copper wire. Beau leans forward. “I think that depends on what we wanna do? Do we meet up with her? We’ve got very little to go on here”, she says.

“We’ve had times where we had even less”, Fjord says. “I think we should go. It seems urgent, and if we can help, well… Maybe we can win a favor from the Gentleman? I dunno.”

“Well I think we should go”, Jester says. “Kara was very nice to us and like Fjord said, maybe it can win us something.”

“In that case I’m with Jester”, Beau sighs. “Yasha?”

Yasha mulls it over for a bit, then says; “Yeah, I think I can come along. I’m kind of curious as to what caused this summons, to be honest.”

“Caleb, Nott?”

Caleb crosses his arms. “Like Beau said, we’ve got very little to go on, if this turns out to be an ambush…”

“Port Damali is my hometown”, Fjord steps in. “Should anything happen, I know the streets, I know the people. I could get us out of there no problem.”

Caleb sighs. “In that case, I am on board as well I suppose. Nott?”

“I go wherever you go, Caleb”, Nott says matter-of-factly as she takes a swig from her flask. “We could use a change of scenery.” Fjord looks at Caduceus. “Caduceus? You cool with this?”

Caduceus hums. “Well, you all have way more experience with this Kara-person than I do, so if you think meeting with her is safe, then I trust your judgement”, he says.

“Then it’s decided.” Fjord nods at Nott. “Tell Kara we’re heading her way crack of dawn tomorrow, if you would.”

\--

They arrive in Port Damali a few days later, heading for the South Sea inn, where they arranged to meet Kara.

Sure enough, the half-elf woman is waiting for them outside, looking nervous but significantly brightening when she sees them approach. “Thank goodness you’re here!”, she says.

Fjord holds up a hand in greeting. “We were just in time to get your message. So what’s this all about? Did the Gentleman send you?”, he asks. Kara laughs, a little nervously. “Heh, not really. Just… recently… I intercepted a few merchants who had arrived in Zadash, asking about the Gentleman. Said they had a companion who was supposed to meet him.

“Now I can’t just tell any random person where to find Zadash’ most feared crime boss, so I asked if I could meet this companion myself and… Well, I think you can guess what happened after that, since I’m here”, she says.

“You’re being more vague than you were in your letter, and that’s saying something”, Beau says, leaning on her staff and looking a little annoyed.

Kara sighs, dropping her arms to her sides. “It’s better if I just show you”, she says and leads them, weirdly enough, to the stables. “The innkeeper doesn’t exactly know I’m here?”, she says. “I’ve taken up camp in my own cart for now, seeing how this stop is temporary.”

She gestures towards said cart. “Here we are.”

The Mighty Nein exchange a few glances before Beau throws up her arms, goes; “FINE! I’ll do it!” and climbs onto the cart, pushing the tarp aside.

For a few moments there is nothing, then a strangled cry that’s probably Beau, followed by Beau herself sticking her head back out, looking bewildered. “Jess- Jester! Come help me out!”, she says before disappearing back in.

Jester looks at Yasha, then Caleb, and then Fjord, who looks as confused as she does, before shrugging and moving over to help Beau.

Again, a few beats of silence before Jester yelps and there’s a shuffling sound.

Then Beau comes back out, arms held up. “Okay, I’m out, give him”, she says.

More exchanged looks. Him?

There’s a grunt from Jester and next Beau lets out an _oof!_ as she catches someone being dropped into her arms and there’s a collective gasp now that the rest of the Mighty Nein can see this person as well.

Being held up by Beau (soon joined by Jester) with incredibly filthy clothes and rusted jewelry, is none other than Mollymauk Tealeaf.

The tiefling seems completely unaware of his surroundings, staring blankly into space.

Before anyone can say or do anything, a blur of black signals Yasha’s movement. She gingerly reaches out and asks; “Can I…?”

“Oh, yeah, of course”, Beau says at the same time Jester says; “Of course, Yasha!” The two relinquish their hold as Yasha picks Molly up carefully. His head slumps against her shoulder and if that hurt in any way, Yasha doesn’t show it.

“They brought him to Zadash because of a note”, Kara says, reminding everyone of her presence. “There was a note that said he should find his way to Zadash and ask for the Gentleman, and that the Mighty Nein would find him that way.”

Caleb bows his head. “Good to know that came in handy”, he mumbles. Fjord looks at him. “You expected this to happen?”, he asks.

Caleb shakes his head. “I didn’t- it wasn’t expectation or confidence. It wasn’t even hope, I think. I just… I wanted to cover all the bases. He’d come back before, so I thought maybe… It wasn’t out of hope or anticipation, I just… You know”, he says, shrugging helplessly. Jester pats him on the arm.

“It’s a good thing you did, or he might have ended up who knows where”, she says. “And then we might have had some biiig trouble.”

Beau readjusts her grip on her staff. “Yeah, what Jester said. Real good thinking, man. Even if it was like, hope beyond hope or something.”

Kara clears her throat. “I should go back. I was kind of in the middle of something, and… yeah.” She climbs onto her cart and smiles at them. “I’m happy for you all. Not many of us get our friends back like… like that.”

“Of course. Thank you, for bringing him to us”, Fjord says and the others nod in agreement. Yasha tightens her grip on Molly a little. “Really, thank you”, she whispers.

Kara smiles again before turning her cart around and spurring on her horses. “See you in Zadash!”

\--

“We should probably get a room for the night”, Caduceus says, squinting at the setting sun. “Good idea”, Fjord says.

They enter the inn and find the innkeeper behind the counter. “Good evenin’, what can I do for ya?”, the innkeeper, a stout dwarven man, asks.

“We’re looking for a place to stay for the night, got any rooms?”, Fjord asks. The innkeeper nods. “Certainly. …Might I ask, what happened to yer friend there?” He points at Molly.

“He got beat to shit, do you have rooms or not?”, Beau interrupts. The innkeeper holds up his hands. “Right, right, none o’ my business, I gotcha. Yeah I got some rooms, how many you lookin’? Four doubles?”

Fjord looks back at the rest of the group, at Yasha who looks like she’d rather die than let Molly go, at Jester who stands so close to the barbarian their arms brush together when they move, at Beau who took up position to obscure the innkeeper’s view of Molly, and he sighs. “Nah, I think two doubles will do us.”

\--

As they settle in for the night, there is of course one final matter to discuss.

“So who’s staying where?”, Fjord asks.

Yasha, from where’s she’s seated on the edge of Molly’s bed, says; “If you don’t mind… I would rather stay here if that’s okay.”

“Me too”, Beau says and Jester adds; “Me three!”

Fjord nods. “Alright, the girls take this room then.” He looks at Nott. “Unless you’d rather stay with Caleb?”

Nott looks at Fjord, then at Caleb, then at the other girls, then back at Caleb and tilts her head. “I think… I think we could do with a girl’s night, yeah”, she says. “Will you be alright?”

“Yeah, yeah of course. Don’t worry, Nott”, Caleb says. “You four keep watch okay? And let us know if anything changes.”

“Got it”, Nott says and Jester gives a thumbs up. “Leave that to us, we are super good at keeping watch!”, she proclaims.

“We’ll be next door then”, Fjord says and takes his leave, followed by Caleb and Caduceus, the latter of whom turns around and smiles. “Goodnight.”

“Night, Caduceus!”, Jester calls back.

As the door clicks shut, Beau says; “Okay. So; two beds, five people, how are we doing this?”

They eventually settle on Beau and Jester sharing the one bed with Nott at the foot end, leaving Yasha with enough room to lay beside Molly on the other bed, despite her claiming that she would be fine sleeping anywhere.

\--

The next few days are all rather similar.

Since Yasha has the most experience with this state of Molly’s, she’s pretty much in charge of looking after him. Turns out he’s not entirely unresponsive; some gentle persuasion from Yasha is often enough to have him do a few simple tasks, such as eating and going to sleep. Most of the time, though, he still stares blankly ahead, not speaking or acknowledging his surroundings.

They are all painfully aware of the fact that he is basically a living ghost right now.

Then, on day five, as they’re having dinner, Molly speaks for the first time.

It’s only a short mumble and he doesn’t repeat it, but their attention is brought to it by Jester’s cutlery clattering against her plate as she drops it.

“He just said something!”, she gasps. “Yasha did you hear that?! He said something!” Yasha nods, shock clear on her face.

“Well, what- what did he say?”, Fjord asks, still coughing from nearly choking on his food.

“He said-”, Jester starts but Yasha says at the same time; “He said; ‘my friends’.”

The silence that falls around the table is a heavy one, until eventually Caleb clears his throat. “That’s- that’s good, isn’t it? If he’s beginning to speak again?”, he asks.

“Does that mean he remembers us?”, Nott says. “I mean, we’re his friends, so…?”

Yasha’s expression is entirely unreadable. “Not… necessarily”, she says. Beau leans in. “How so?”

“When we… When I was still with the circus and we’d just found Molly- He would only say ‘empty’. That was all. Gustav thought they were initials – M.T. – but when we asked him about it once he’d become aware, he had no idea. He didn’t know why he’d been saying that. He didn’t know if it was supposed to be M.T. or ‘empty’, or what that word meant to him. So even though he’s saying ‘my friends’ now… That doesn’t mean it’ll mean anything to him when he… wakes up”, Yasha explains.

Another silence.

Yasha sighs. “I’m not… I’m not trying to be pessimistic, but… once he becomes aware again, please keep in mind that he might not- might not remember us, or being Molly. Just… don’t- don’t get your hopes up too much, alright?”

Jester, who had been chewing on her lip up til now, abruptly stands. “Uhm! Caduceus, can I talk to you for a second? Somewhere else”, she says. Caduceus raises his eyebrows at her, but does stand up. Jester worms her way out from between Molly and Caleb and waves. “We’ll be right back!”, she says.

“Wait, Jester, where are you going?”, Fjord asks, just as confused as the rest of the Nein.

“It’s Cleric stuff, Fjord, you wouldn’t understand anyway!”, Jester yells back as she skips off, followed closely by Caduceus.

After about half an hour, Caduceus returns, although Jester is nowhere to be seen. When asked about this, Caduceus just shakes his head. “She’s got some stuff to work out, let’s just give her some time.”

They don’t see Jester again for the rest of that evening, and she doesn’t come back until some ungodly hour the next morning, when the creaking of the door wakes Yasha, who stares at her quizzically. Jester just gestures for her to go back to sleep and mouths; ‘I’ll explain later.’

\--

Molly repeats the phrase ‘my friends’ a few more times in the next couple of days and slowly regains some autonomy, even though he continues to stare straight ahead with unfocused eyes.

Jester disappears a few more times, always without warning and always back super early the next morning. Despite what she told Yasha, she remains tight-lipped about the whole thing, which is especially odd for her.

“It’ll all make sense in just a bit, just trust me, okay?”, she says when Fjord has her cornered one day and questions her about her absences. Beau tries to get some information out of her as well, but Jester just tells her the same thing she told Fjord. This continues for about a week.

\--

It’s almost been a month since their arrival in Port Damali when one night, something wakes Yasha.

Her first thought is Jester, even though the blue tiefling has stopped disappearing three days ago, who is, at the moment, curled up next to Beau. Both girls are fast asleep, with Nott snoring softly near the footboard.

Yasha sits up, looks behind her to check on Molly.

Who isn’t there.

She stands immediately, frantically scanning the room. And stops when she sees Mollymauk standing at the window, framed by silver moonlight.

She approaches carefully. “Molly…?”

No response. Slowly, she goes to stand beside him and gets a better look. Molly is staring at the two moons, forming two perfect crescents in the sky. Kind of like the scimitars he used to swing around.

Yasha bites her lip as her chest tightens at the memory. Despite what she told the others, a small stubborn part of her keeps holding onto the hope that, when Molly regains his awareness, he will remember them. Remember her.

She doesn’t want to think about what it would do to her if he became someone else. Again.

That small, hopeful voice is there right now, whispering almost naïve things to her. She really hates that voice.

Yasha puts a hand on Molly’s shoulder. “Molly, it’s late, you should be asleep”, she whispers.

At first Molly doesn’t respond and Yasha sighs. Then he turns to look at her. Yasha starts. He’s looking at her, not through her like he has these past few weeks. “…Molly…?”

Molly continues to stare at her and as he does, his gaze focuses. The fog lifts. Slowly, almost unnoticeably, Molly’s eyes widen in a look of surprise.

“…Yasha?”, he croaks.

That’s all he gets to say before Yasha scoops him up and twirls both of them around, trying not to cry and failing as Molly laughs. “Whoa! I missed you too, darling!”

She puts him down and steps back but doesn’t let go, keeping a hold of Molly’s arms, who returns the favor. He’s grinning ear to ear and god, Yasha wasn’t aware how much she’d missed that.  
Actually that’s a lie – she knows exactly how much she’s missed that dumb grin.

“You’re back!”, Molly says. “Safe and unharmed. I knew those assholes wouldn’t be able to get you down!” He moves back in to hug her again. Yasha squeezes him tight, barely able to believe what’s currently happening. Then his words register and she breaks away again.

“What do you mean, ‘those assholes’?”, she asks. Molly tilts his head. “Those fuckers the Shepherds of course. To be fair, I think I blacked out at some point”, he says. He looks out the window again. “Where are we now? Judging from the smell, I would say the ocean? And how are Jester and Fjord doing? Are they alright?”

There’s a different pain welling up in Yasha’s chest now. “Molly… That was almost two months ago.”

Instantly Molly’s smile disappears. “…What?”

Yasha presses a hand to the scar the glaive left on Molly’s chest. It’s been healing, albeit at a snail’s pace, so it’s still very much visible. “Do you… remember how you got this?”, she asks.

Molly is silent for a while as he thinks. “Wasn’t that… I think I got this…”, he murmurs. Then his eyes go wide and he doubles over with a gasp. Yasha grabs a hold of him. “Molly?!”

She’s vaguely aware of Beau stirring awake behind her. “Yasha…? What’s goin’ on?”

Yasha looks at the monk over her shoulder. “Wake Jester! Or Caduceus, or both, just-! Get me either of them, it’s Molly, he’s not okay!”, she shouts. That snaps Beau awake. She immediately shakes Jester and gives Nott a shove.

“Jester, Nott, wake the fuck up!! It’s Molly!”, she says, then jumps out of bed and rushes to the other room where the rest of group sleeps. Jester sits up groggily, trying very hard to wake herself up. “Whaf? Beau??”

Then she sees Yasha, trying her darnest to hold Molly up, who seems to be going into cardiac arrest and her eyes go wide. “Oh gosh, oh fuckballs!”, she says and leaps into action.

“What’s going on!?”, Nott yells.

“Don’t worry Nott I got this!”, Jester yells back and then mumbles “oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh” as she prepares a healing spell. “What’s wrong with him?!”

“I don’t know! We were talking and he mentioned the Shepherds like it was a recent thing so I told him it was longer than that and then he just- I don’t know!”, Yasha says, on the verge of blind panic as Molly’s nails digs into her arms and she needs all her strength to keep him upright.

The door is flung open and she hears Fjord echo the same question; “What’s going on?! What happened!?”

“We don’t know!”, Jester says and curses when her spell doesn’t take hold. “Caduceus, help!”

Caduceus mumbles a spell and flings it their way, catching Molly, who gasps and immediately goes limp. Yasha and Jester both move to catch him. He’s still conscious, breathing heavily and clearly reeling from suddenly not being in pain anymore.

“Molly, are you okay?”, Jester asks. Molly nods slowly. “I- I think so”, he says.

Fjord puts his hands up. “Okay, everyone, I suggest we all just- we all just sit down and chill the fuck out so we can talk about this. Everyone in favor say aye.” Most of them mumble in agreement, Jester yells “AYE” and needs to be shushed, and Beau groans; “We’re not on the ship anymore, Fjord.”

But they do sit down, and they do talk about everything that happened after that disastrous encounter on the Glory Run Road; the journey to Nicodranas, the shenanigans there and the eventual theft of The Mist (at which Molly laughs so hard he nearly passes out), the whole ordeal with Avantika and the aftermath of that particular misadventure. And then, of course, their return to Nicodranas and the arrival of Kara’s letter.

Once they’re done, there’s a small silence before Molly chuckles. “You guys… You can’t go five minutes without getting caught up in something, huh?”, he says, grinning at them. He leans against Yasha, having taken a hold of her hand somewhere halfway through the catching up, and hums.

“…Yasha.” Yasha perks up. “Yeah?”

Molly bites his lip, doesn’t look at her. “Jester, Fjord… Sorry.”

“What- why are you apologizing, Molly?”, Fjord asks and Jester chimes in; “That’s what I was about to say!”

Molly is avoiding all their stares now. “Because I wasn’t there. I made a bad call and… just- I’m sorry.”

Right as he says that, Yasha pulls him close, nearly squishing him. “Don’t say that. Don’t you ever- That wasn’t your fault”, she says, voice hoarse.

“Yeah Molly!”, Jester says. “It was that fuckwad Lorenzo’s fault, you- you tried your best! Don’t- don’t apologize”, she says and her voice breaks a little on the last word.

“But-” Molly is stopped as another pair of arms wrap around him and Beau mumbles; “shut the fuck up, okay?”, from where she’s pressed the side of her face against his shoulder. “It wasn’t your fucking fault, so don’t you dare feel guilty about it.”

“GROUPHUG!!”, Jester screams and crawls around the three to hug both Molly and Beau at the same time. She jerks her head at the rest. “Get your butts over here!!”

Fjord and Caleb exchange glances and Fjord shrugs, stands up and goes to Yasha’s other side and kind of awkwardly leans against her. Nott rolls her eyes. “I swear- Let me show you how it’s done!”, she declares and goes to sit on Yasha’s lap, trying and failing to wrap her arms around both Yasha and Molly’s waists. Yasha snickers.

Caduceus goes to sit next to Jester, one arm around her and the other around Beau. Caleb sighs and sits himself on Jester’s other side, barely managing to stretch from Jester’s shoulder to Fjord’s.

Somehow Molly manages to wring a hand free to wipe his eyes with and gives a wet chuckle. “Gods- I fucking missed you guys”, he says, throat clearly tight and words shaky.

There’s a chorus of agreements and Caduceus says; “I’m glad to actually meet you in person after all their stories.”

Molly laughs. “Oh, that’s right!” He manages to raise his hand for Caduceus to shake, who happily obliges. “Mollymauk Tealeaf, pleasure.”

“Caduceus Clay, the pleasure is mine.”

“So I don’t want to ruin this fluffy atmosphere we got going here-”, Caleb says “-but I still sorta wonder what Jester’s been doing these past few days.”

Again there’s noise of agreement and Molly turns awkwardly to try and look at Jester. “What did you get up to, sneaky?” He feels Jester shift but she doesn’t break away.

“Well… So I don’t know if I ever told you guys this, but like- So the Traveler is really good with potions, yeah? He once offered- actually that doesn’t matter. Anyway- He’s really good with potions so I was thinking if maybe like… he had something that could restore lost memories?”

When no one speaks, Jester continues. “He did so I asked if I could have one for a friend who needed it – that’s you-” she nudges Molly “- and he said sure but it would take a _lot_ of time and a _lot_ of prayer from me.”

“And you didn’t tell us because…?”, Nott says. Jester huffs. “Well I didn’t know if it was gonna work so I didn’t want to get you guys’ hopes up so I- I didn’t say anything. I wanted to be sure”, she says.

“When the hell did you sneak him _that_?”, Beau asks. “There were always two or more of us keeping watch.”

“I’m touched”, Molly comments. Beau frees a hand to smack him and he laughs.

“Oh, I didn’t”, Jester says. “I was planning to use it if he didn’t remember us, but apparently that’s off the table now. Now I just got a cool potion.”

Beau snorts and Fjord chuckles. Molly raises his one free hand to pat Jester on the head. “It’s appreciated, dear. In fact, I would have expected nothing less from you”, he says. Jester grins proudly.

There’s some more banter back and forth until Nott’s snoring starts back up and the rest of the Nein decide it’s time to get some more rest. Beau pushes the two beds together and Jester takes it into her head to get the two from the other room as well, despite Fjord’s protesting about how the innkeeper is gonna be pissed. Caleb notes they can always just put them back later.

It ends with the Mighty Nein all sprawled out over four different beds and Molly is pretty sure none of them will have feeling in any of their limbs the next morning, but that’s fine. It’s all fine.

He shifts a little and Yasha turns to smile at him. “I’m glad you’re back”, she says. He grins and presses a kiss to her jaw.

“I’m glad to be back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Oh shoot nearly forgot the link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQvh0dnBZSg 
> 
> It killed me mulitple times so have fun.


End file.
